1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print control apparatus, a print control system, and a print control method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there is an image forming apparatus provided with a clear toner that is a colorless toner containing no color material, in addition to toners of four colors of C (cyan), M (magenta), Y (yellow), and K (black). A toner image formed with the clear toner is fixed to a recording medium, such as a sheet of paper, on which an image is already formed with the CMYK toners, so that a visual effect or a tactual effect (hereinafter, referred to as a “surface effect”) can be realized on the recording medium.
The surface effect to be realized varies depending on what toner image is formed with the clear toner and how the toner image is fixed. Some surface effects simply apply gloss and other surface effects reduce gloss. In addition, there are different needs, such as a need to apply the surface effect to the whole surface of a sheet, a need to apply the surface effect to a part of the surface, and a need to apply a texture or a watermark with the clear toner. There is also a need for surface protection
Some surface effects are realized by performing post processing by a special post-processor, such as a glosser or a low-temperature fixing device, rather than by controlling fixation. In recent years, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2011-150158 for example, a technology has been developed to attach a clear toner to only a desired portion in a part of the surface to apply gloss.
Furthermore, to output appropriate glossiness when an image is formed on a sheet having different surface glossiness, smoothness, or thickness, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2011-43683 discloses an image forming apparatus that measures glossiness of a sheet and changes a heat condition including a fixing temperature according to the glossiness so that an image with appropriate glossiness can be output.
However, in the conventional gloss control technology, when a surface effect, such as specular gloss, that is greatly influenced by the smoothness of a sheet is to be applied to a sheet having large surface irregularities, the surface effect varies and a surface effect desired by a user may not be obtained, which is a problem.
Therefore, there is a need for a print control apparatus, a print control system, and a print control method capable of obtaining a surface effect as desired by a user regardless of a type of a sheet.